In the manufacture of pneumatic tires and also wheels and rims for pneumatic tires, it is exceedingly difficult if not impossible to produce a tire, a wheel, or the combination thereof in perfect rotational balance. As known, when out of balance, such a tire, wheel, or combination thereof, vibrates excessively upon rotation and can cause damage to adjacent, coupled-to and/or related components.
Accordingly, and as is known, such tire, wheel, or combination thereof is balanced by appropriately applying one or more counter-balancing weights to compensate for a measured imbalance. Methods of measuring imbalance and determining where to apply the counter-balancing weights are generally known to the relevant public and therefore need not be described herein.
Heretofore, such a counter-balancing weight has been constructed to have a body formed from lead or the like as a unitary mass around a steel clip, where the steel clip securely clips on to an exterior circumferential flange or lip at the rim of the wheel. However, the use of lead has come to be discouraged for environmental reasons, among others.
Accordingly, a need exists for a wheel-balancing weight with a body formed from a material other than lead. More particularly, a need exists for such a wheel-balancing weight where the clip is secured to the body in the axial, circumferential, and radial directions with respect to the axis of rotation of the wheel, and where the body is well-positioned with respect to the wheel when the weight is mounted to such wheel. Still more particularly, a need exists for such a wheel-balancing weight that is simple in design and manufacture and therefore is affordable in cost.